One Step Closer to Kafka

 

Starting with a post from almost two years ago: Please, No DOGE.  Several months before DOGE blew up, but after noting that there is no chance that the bureaucracy and those who live off its fat would allow Musk to take $2 trillion (or even $2 million) out of government spending, I offered:

But there is a bigger problem: do I want the government to more efficiently kill innocents overseas; more efficiently spy on me; more efficiently incarcerate perpetrators of victimless crimes; more efficiently process illegal aliens?  Oh, the list can go on.

Concluding with:

At most, Musk and his buddies will make some aspects of government more efficient – Blackwater will fix the DOD, Palantir will fix the CIA and FBI, etc.  You get the idea.  

I want none of that.

Well, the “good” parts of DOGE disappeared very quickly, and look what we are left with:

Beginning next year, U.S. citizens can apply for their first passport fully online, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

"By the end of 2027, our goal is for the vast majority of Americans to be able to apply for a passport or a passport card on America.gov," Rubio said during a Sept. 29 remark at an event launching the America.gov platform.

Now, setting aside the wisdom of such an idea (not my subject for today), this is just one step in a larger plan to make the government more “efficient.”  There is an entirely new platform being developed, consolidating every bit of federal government data into one location:

The America.gov platform was launched by President Donald Trump on Sept. 29.

Trump signed an executive order instructing federal agencies to integrate their services with the platform.

The new web portal is aimed at making it easier for people to find government-related information, enabling people to ask questions and get guidance on how to procure various services.

The portal serves as a landing page that consolidates almost 30,000 federal government websites into one chatbot.

To the extent any of this is accomplished (also not my subject today), I suspect Russian and Chinese hackers are giggling with glee at how much easier this will make their work (and…also not my subject today). 

This is my subject:

Answers to questions about government services come directly from official government websites with links to sources, according to the platform.

If anywhere close to accomplished, this could reach all aspects of interaction with government.

Next year, the site is scheduled to offer assistance in finding Medicare coverage and enrollment.

Already a bankrupt program, but now we will make it go bankrupt even more efficiently?

The site will also make it easier for Americans to find a job in the federal government.

What?  If you are making the government more efficient, why make this part of the government more efficient?  Wouldn’t we require fewer government employees, not more?

Citizens will submit their resumes, and the platform will match them with positions fitting their experience.

If there was any true intent to make government more efficient (there isn’t), the government would do fewer things (say, start by looking at the actual Constitution for a blueprint); it wouldn’t work to do everything it does and more even more efficiently.

Conclusion

Now, if I believed this would result in some reduction in government spending due to a reduced need for wasteful hiring (say, at least $1 trillion), I might be willing to make the tradeoff.

And who knows what else they are planning to make more efficient (which, of course, they aren’t telling us about until it goes live – if then).  It is the “what else” that is the really scary stuff…assuming they could actually do any of this (although, there is always a bright and evil someone willing to trade their evil for a few coins).

To this end, returning to my post from two years ago:

Almost all that the government does are things that I do not want the government to do.  So why would I want the government to be more efficient at any of these?

I want none of this.

I am certain they will make the stuff I don’t want more efficient.  There are dozens of tech companies already serving or lining up to serve these ends.  Some of the brightest (and most dangerous) minds in the western world are telling us loudly what they intend in this regard.

Taking Royal Hostages

 

Historically, a militarily defeated country was required to provide hostages to the victor to ensure compliance to whatever treaty came into force after a war.  The defeated king would be required to send members of his family to be kept in the imperial household of the victor.  Thereafter, any violation by the defeated power would result in, among other consequences, the death of these hostages.

Thinking about the current situation in the Middle East and the Gulf, it seems so logical that the Gulf countries, whose economies depend on oil and gas infrastructure and whose people depend on desalinated water and also electricity for air conditioning would want to cut a deal with Iran for peace.  It is clear that Iran can target and hit any such facilities that they choose. 

So why haven’t these Gulf countries come to some sort of mutually agreeable terms to keep the Gulf open for shipping, sustaining life, etc.?  To my knowledge, the United States isn’t holding hostage any crown princes of the various Gulf monarchs.  But the United States is, in fact, holding countless billions (trillions) in wealth from these same monarchs.  Investments in US assets, investments held at US institutions, and investments denominated in US dollars. 

Is the US capable only of confiscating Iranian or Russian assets?  Of course not. 

These monarchs are between a rock and a hard place: watch their countries and, therefore, the source of their wealth destroyed, or watch their accumulated wealth confiscated.

Our Present Age

 

Romans 1: 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

Romans 1: 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

Clearly, we are governed by such people.  If anyone had any doubt about this before, there can be no doubt today. 

Where has such behavior led in the past?

Leviticus 18: 24 ‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. 25 For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants.

Deuteronomy 20: 16 “But of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, 17 but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18 lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God.

People will cry, “Oh, that’s not fair; that isn’t just.”  Don’t be fooled.  God is very patient (He gave the Canaanites centuries), but He isn’t mocked.

Romans 2: 2 But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

We live in a wicked land, ruled by wicked people.  God’s judgment is true.